the company of the broken hearted

Do you ever feel like a failure? Like you’ve massively let God down? Think about this...

Moses killed an Egyptian and ran away. Jacob cheated his way into someone else’s blessing. Paul persecuted Christians, Peter denied knowing Jesus altogether, the disciples hid from the cross, Noah got drunk, James and John wanted God to actually airstrike a village, and David, the greatest king Israel had ever had, stole another man’s wife and had him killed out of jealousy.

How does your failure match up?

The truth is that God is familiar with failure, and yet somehow in ways we can’t understand, He still uses people who failed... to change the world! Here’s what David said after he spectacularly messed up:

“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;

    a broken and contrite heart

    you, God, will not despise.” - Psalm 51:17

David understood the heart of God so well! He knew that what counted after failing was repentance through the tears; a sacrifice of worship without hiding the truth of what he’d done.

If you feel as though you’ve let God down recently, read the whole of Psalm 51 today and see if you can capture David’s attitude from his words. We’re built to learn from our failure, never hide from it. God loves you enough to let his amazing grace work through your weakness. And you’re in good company, the company of the broken hearted.